“heaven could just be a fog machine in Orlando”

I rediscover the podcast On Being every few years. This time around, I stumbled onto a series within the series called The Future of Hope. The first interview was between journalist Wajahat Ali and theologian Kate Bowler.

This led me to Kate Bowler’s memoir Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved. At the center is how she responds to the news, as a young mother, that she has stage 4 cancer. As a professor of theology at Duke Divinity School (as well as a student of the prosperity gospel), she is surrounded by prayer, yes, but also plenty of empty platitudes.

If you’ve ever wondered what to say, or what not to say, to someone experiencing loss, that in itself is a good reason to open this book. But as you read, you’ll also find yourself reflecting on suffering, the perspective of time, and, with good humor, a little hope.  

"we will experience times of great inner emptiness"

Last fall, I was invited to join a book club with some Benedictine oblates. This month’s selection was The Forgotten Desert Mothers written by one of the Benedictine sisters, Laura Swan.

As Swan writes in the preface, “Women’s history has often been relegated to the shadow world: felt but not seen. Many of our church fathers became prominent because of women. Many of these fathers were educated and supported by strong women, and some are even credited with founding movements that were actually begun by the women in their lives.”

Swan begins by outlining the cultural context of these women as well as a description of what is meant by desert spirituality. She then shares and comments on the sayings of more well-known desert mothers such as Syncletica and Theodora, and catalogues the brief biographies of nearly 40 lesser known women who chose this ascetic life.

Especially as we experience the liturgical desert of Lent, these women have much wisdom to share on humility, grief, anger, overindulgence, and self-awareness.  

“When I encountered the ammas,” Swan writes, “they made sense of the desert in my life.”

Similar =

The Libby app has a new (to me) button labeled “similar approximately equal sign.” So far it’s been more approximate than equal. After staying up all night finishing Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, I, of course, wanted to find something similarly engrossing. Kudos, Libby, for pointing me to Laurie Frankel’s Goodbye for Now. However, I don’t think I’ll be picking up Hot Response by Ruby Scott anytime soon (though I’m sure it’s engrossing in another sense of the word).

So here’s a very brief similar to list of my own making:

If you were intrigued by The Bletchley Women, you might try books by Beatriz Williams. Start with Our Woman in Moscow and then dive into her books about the Schuyler sisters.

If you want to recapture the whimsy of One Day in December, try Jenny Bayliss. My hold on The Twelve Dates of Christmas came in sometime in mid January, but I’d be happy to read that one and Meet Me Under the Mistletoe even in August.

If you were inspired by Carrie Soto is Back, try Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein. And then go behind the scenes of a professional, albeit amateur, matchmaker in Playing with Matches. Oh! And then you have to read Meant to be Mine if you like a good fatalistic rom-com.